A while back, I bought this Breast Milk Storage Kit from Playtex which I love and works out beautifully with my awesome little Playtex breast pump. The plan was to use this kit with the pump to make for easy thawing and feeding while I’m in work…..we realized that it’s kind of impractical to expect to build up a stash as I go unless I keep buying these kits so that we have rings and lids for storage. Meh.

So, I said we’ll use up all the milk I have stored with this kit and fee up all the toppers so that I have extras to bring back and forth to work with me and just get regular old breast milk storage bags to keep the home supply.

I mentioned a while back that my problem with nursing in public is not so much whether or not I have the right to do so, cuz I do and I will so everyone can just get over it…..my problem is my own personal modesty issues and personal comfort. I mean at home, I can enjoy a cup of tea and nurse BabyFrog while wearing a tank top and a “comfortable” bra….but, outside the comfort of our apartment is still a work in progress. I’ve had a little bit of success nursing with BabyFrog in my awesome sling and I absolutely love it….but she’s outgrowing it much quicker than I thought she would so it can be a little tough to work that. Totally getting another sling, though, it’s awesome!!

Now, I haven’t managed to get my hands on a Baby Bond – though I would still very much like to! – I went out today and bought a bunch of tops to serve as nursing tops….over the past few weeks, I’ve discovered that it’s nearly impossible to find actual nursing tops that are “me”…so today, I hit our favorite second hand store and looked for tops that would not only work to modestly NIP but are still something I would wear or would at least make it easier to nurse while wearing my favorite t-shirts ;^)

I’m still dealing with this bra thing, though….I’ve been through pretty much every nursing bra I can find and none of them are even a little bit comfortable for me to wear in public. I like my super-supportive, pre-formed bras with the bone and the underwire….they lift, separate and relieve the fatigue in my upper back – that is comfortable! They are however not great for breastfeeding….over, under, slip the strap down – nope, nope, nope…..so I’m stuck with two cottony, stretchy things that I bought a while back for sitting around in. While they do have an underwire, they just can’t cope…..I’m a DD to begin with and wearing one of these things when we go out…..I feel awful. Miserable. Frumpy. Ugh. I think I might have to perform surgery on one of my good bras before I go back to work to see if I can get it to work, at least for pumping.

So, how have you managed to make nursing – whether in public or not – work for you? What about your bra? Are you really happy with it? If so, can you tell me what it is…..please????

Oh, and please head over and “like” the FrogMonkey Facebook page – I’ll be using that to share some interesting links, news and other fun-stuff that I normally wouldn’t post here. Love to see you there! ;^)

I haven’t really had much opportunity to try out the diapers just yet as we usually use cloth diapers during the day. I definitely like them a whole lot better than the Pampers we used in the hospital and for the first few days after we got home – talk about leaks!! I had received a pack of Huggies as a gift, though, and I really liked those as our back-up…..fortunately, I had a few decent coupons from Target for some Huggies products, so DH picked up a pack of their diapers and wipes and that’s pretty much what we’ve been working with those from the beginning.

The Seventh Generation diapers actually seem pretty comparable to to the Huggies. The exterior is a little more paper-like, but the construction is nice and has elastic bits in just the right places….and, as with the Huggies, we haven’t had to deal with many leaks when we use them. Super environmentally friendly, chlorine free and leak free? That makes them pretty kick-ass in my book ;^)

Now.

About the wipes.

The Huggies wipes are very nice to the touch. They are heavy and thick – very cloth-like, nice. The package says “fragrance free” but I think they actually have a pretty strong scent. It’s not unpleasant, mind you, and I’m the type that’s overly annoyed by pretty much any smell so it’s not really wise to take my word on this…..and to be fair, there is no fragrance listed on the package in the ingredients list so it’s probably just the “natural” scent of the wash solutions.

The Seventh Generation wipes…..well, they’re different. They still have a cloth-like feel to them but they are a little thinner. Not so much that I’ve had to use more than one with a normal diaper change and not more than two with a bigger mess, so that’s pretty good. At first, the smell really put me off but again, I’m easily annoyed by scents….and it actually isn’t bothering me so much anymore so it must have just been that initial shock.

BabyFrog has never been a happy camper when it comes time for a diaper change. It was always more than just a “hey, we’re wasting precious eatin’ time here!” kind of cry, too….so I was always on the look-out for a developing rash or something because she really would howl any time I unfastened her diaper. I tried to warm up the wipes, thinking she was anticipating a cold shock….made sure to put something on her bottom in case there was a little irritation I couldn’t see with all the kicking and squirming and hollaring she was doing….but yeah, diaper changes were not a happy time around here.

But after the second day using the Seventh Generation wipes, BabyFrog wasn’t howling anymore. Sure she was still kicking like crazy, but now….it was play time! She was laughing and smiling and making faces and actually okay with having to wait 5 seconds before she could eat!!

I actually can’t find a list of the ingredients for Huggies wipes online. So if you’re like me and prefer to do your shopping online, you’d be out of luck if you wanted to make sure there’s nothing on these wipes that your baby might be allergic to and probably wind up buying another brand anyway.

So, thanks for the free sample, Seventh Generation – you found yourself a new customer here ;^)

So normally, I hate going to stores. I much prefer online shopping. But now and then, I can really score when I actually go shopping.

I really only went to Babies “R” Us to get some tea because I’m addicted to the stuff and I’m completely out so I don’t want to have to wait for it to get here Monday. Of course, once I’m there, I can’t not look around…..I was going to order some Gerber pre-folds this week so I checked to see if they had those….they did, but the Babies “R” Us brand pre-folds were not only $2 cheaper, but they were BOGO50%off – woot!

We also wanted to grab some disposables because even though we use cloth during the day, I still haven’t been brave enough to do it at night…..so Bill noticed that if you buy the Seventh Generation diapers, you get a free pack of their wipes…..only a small pack but it’s usually $5 so, WTF, right?